An access tunnel to an aircraft, for example from a parked bus or from a part of a building, is sufficiently known from the prior art. Such access tunnels are used when access to the aircraft should be made possible for passengers from an exit of a building at ground level to the taxiway area without them being exposed to weather conditions. Such access tunnels are known, as already stated.
For example, PCT/DE2013/000513 discloses an access tunnel which has a plurality of tunnel elements, whereby the access tunnel can be adapted to the required length. It is known in detail from this citation to displace two elements into one another to protect the individual tunnel elements from contamination, and also from weather effects overall. Provision is made in this respect that a substantially rigid tunnel element as a base element has at least one further tunnel element formed for extension in the manner of a concertina, with the substantially rigid tunnel element as the base element being able to receive the tunnel element formed in the manner of a concertina in it in the manner of a garage.
FR 2 886 624 A also discloses an access tunnel to an aircraft which has a plurality of telescopic tunnel elements and two rigid tunnel elements at the end sides which are intended to serve as guide elements on the moving of the access tunnel. The access tunnel described there is thus variable in length. This means that the space requirements of the access tunnel on the airport ramp are variable.
An access tunnel to an aircraft is likewise known from WO 01/88274, wherein individual tunnel elements are telescopically connected to one another. It is disadvantageous therein that if a plurality of such tunnel elements are telescopically connected to one another, the clearance width reduces more and more over the length of the tunnel element. This means that the number of the tunnel elements connected in such a manner are absolutely limited. It has furthermore been found to be disadvantageous that, due to the guiding of the individual tunnel elements into one another, a substantial force requirement is necessary to pull the individual elements apart to form the access tunnel. This is because, as already stated, the frameworks of the individual tunnel elements are connected to one another in a guided manner. It would be desirable to overcome the limitations of existing known access tunnels and to provide a better solution.